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Haym Salomon 



THE FINANCIER OF THE REVOLUTION 



AN UNWRITTEN CHAPTER IN 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



MADISON C. PETERS 



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NEW YORK 

THE TROW PRESS 

191 1 



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Copyright, 191 i, by Madison C. Pktkrs 

All rights reserved 







Preface 

On July 2 2, 19 lo, in a lecture by the au- 
thor, in San Francisco, on " The Part of the 
Jew in the Making of America," reference 
was made to Haym Salomon as the unrecog- 
nized financier of the American Revolution, 
and the speaker urged that the American 
Jews, to establish their rightful place in Amer- 
ican Revolutionary history, should erect a 
monument to Haym Salomon, the establisher 
of the Nation's credit. At the conclusion of 
the lecture, on motion of Col. Henry I. Kow- 
alski, who was named as secretary, it was 
unanimously carried that the monument be 
built. Hon. Julius Kahn, Congressman from 
San Francisco, who introduced the lecturer, 
was made chairman of the National Commit- 
tee; Mr. Joseph B. Greenhut, of New York, 
treasurer; and Mr. Adolph Kraus, of Chi- 
cago, National President of the B'nai B'rith, 
was named as vice-president. On the sug- 
gestion of Mr. Greenhut and others this book- 
let was prepared to give in compact form the 
story of Salomon in order to create the pre- 
liminary intelligent interest essential to a suc- 
cessful campaign for funds. No effort at this 
7 



Preface 

writing has been made for contributions, but 
the writer presented the proposition to Mr. 
William Salomon, great-grandson of the Rev- 
olutionary patriot, and he immediately vol- 
unteered to head the list with $2,500. 

This booklet is the contribution of a Gen- 
tile, a minister of the Gospel who has made 
Jewish history a specialty. It is published in 
paper covers for general distribution; in cloth 
binding it should be in all the public and 
school libraries of the country for future ref- 
erence, while in its popular form it should be 
in the hands of the millions of American Jews 
and Gentiles who are ignorant of the part of 
the Jew in the battles for American Independ- 
ence. Those who desire a part in the building 
of the monument should send their subscrip- 
tions to J. B. Greenhut, Eighteenth Street and 
Sixth Avenue, New York, while those who 
are interested in the circulation of this gener- 
ally unknown story of unequalled financial 
sacrifice for human freedom should communi- 
cate with the author. 

Madison C. Peters. 
1822 Glenwood Road, 

Brooklyn, New York. 



CONTENTS 



I 

PAGE 

Haym Salomon 1 1 



II 
Other Jewish Patriots of the Revolution . . 39 



I 
Haym Salomon 

HAYM SALOMON was born at 
Lissa, Poland, in 1740, of Jewish- 
Portuguese descent, and it is prob- 
able that he left his native country after the 
partition of Poland in 1772. 

Salomon's family were highly respectable 
and learned people. He enjoyed the friend- 
ships of Kosciuszko and Pulaski, the noble 
patriots who unsheathed their swords for hu- 
man liberty. 

With his own unhappy country's history 
and with his hatred of despotic Russia, Salo- 
mon imbibed a love of liberty which extensive 
travel in Europe intensified, and, as might 
have been expected, the outbreak of the Revo- 
lution found him an ardent supporter of the 
Colonial cause. 

1 1 



Haym Salomon 

He settled in New York and there married 
Rachel, daughter of Moses B. Franks, of 
London, who, as well as his brother, the dis- 
tinguished Jacob Franks of the Revolution- 
ary War, died in New York while it was yet 
a colony. Rachel Franks was the sister of 
Colonel Isaac Franks, a Revolutionary officer 
of distinction, and of Mayer Isaac Franks, a 
judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 

Moses and Jacob Franks were the sons of 
Adam Franks, of Germany, the friend of 
King George of Hanover and who loaned 
that monarch the most valuable jewels in his 
crown at the coronation. 

Jacob Franks was the British King's sole 
agent for the Northern Colonies at New York, 
and his son David was the British King's 
agent for Pennsylvania, 

When the Revolutionary War began, Salo- 
mon identified himself with the American 
cause and was arrested and imprisoned as a 
spy soon after the occupation of New York 
by the British in 1776. Salomon was closely 
confined for a long time in the prison known 
as " the Provost," which stood on the spot 
12 



The Financier of the Revolution 

now occupied by the old Hall of Records in 
the City Hall Park. So closely were the pris- 
oners packed there that when they " laid down 
at night to rest, when their bones ached, on 
the hard oak planks, and they wished to turn, 
it was altogether by command, ' right — left,' 
being so wedged as to form almost a solid 
mass of solid bodies." 

When Salomon's linguistic proficiency be- 
came known (he knew Polish, French, Ger- 
man, Russian, Spanish and Italian), he was 
turned over to the Hessian general, Heister, 
who gave him an appointment in the com- 
missariat department, where his greater lib- 
erty enabled him to render much service to 
the French and American prisoners, many of 
whom he helped to escape. He created dis- 
sension among the Hessian officers, prompt- 
ing many to resign from the service. 

In 1778, he was taken by the British gen- 
eral. Sir H. Clinton, on charges that he had 
received orders from Washington to burn 
fleets and destroy their warehouses, " which 
he had attempted to execute to their great 
damage and injury." 

13 



Haym Salomon 

He was imprisoned, tortured, and con- 
demned to a military death, but on August 1 1, 
1778, he managed to escape, by bribing his 
jailor, leaving behind him in New York, six 
thousand pounds sterling, a distressed wife, 
and child one month old. It seems likely 
that his intimate friend, the brave General 
McDougall, who then commanded the Ameri- 
can army in the neighborhood of New York, 
was in co-operation with him. Fourteen days 
later Salomon addressed a petition to the Con- 
tinental Congress, setting forth his services 
and asking for some employment; but, char- 
acteristic of the man, he asked not for himself 
alone, at the same time he entered a plea for 
the exchange of Samuel Demezes, a fellow 
prisoner. 

Congress turned a deaf ear to his plea and 
the denial worked for the ultimate good both 
of Salomon and the young country. 

The tide in his affairs, and as the story 
shows, the tide in the affairs of the young 
Republic, turned upon his escape to Phila- 
delphia, and it was not long until he succeeded 
in establishing himself in business, and there 
14 



The Financier of the Revolution 

becoming one of the greatest financiers of his 
adopted city. 

Salomon's matchless enterprise, eminent re- 
spectability, remarkable intelligence, irre- 
proachable integrity, his delicate sense of 
mercantile honor, his unbounded benevolence 
for all mankind, and, above all, his undying 
hatred of English tyranny, soon led to his 
recognition by the leading men of his time, 
and the uncompromising, implacable foe to 
British dominion was brought into intimate 
relationships with th-e Revolutionary patriots. 

Early in 178 1, he made known through 
the newspapers that he was a dealer in bills 
of exchange on France and Holland. For the 
most part the money advanced by Louis XVI 
and the proceeds of the loans negotiated in 
Holland passed through his hands. He was 
intrusted with the negotiation of all the war 
subsidies of France and Holland on his own 
personal integrity, which were sold to the res- 
ident merchants in America without any loss, 
at a credit of two and three months, for which 
he received the small commission of one- 
fourth of one per cent. Several European fi- 
15 



Haym Salomon 

nancial houses did business through him. A 
few days after the foregoing announcement, 
Robert Morris became Superintendent of 
Finance. Morris' diary records not less 
than seventy-five financial transactions with 
Salomon, between August 178 1, and April 
1784. 

Alexander Hamilton, writing during the 
dark days of the war to Robert Morris, says: 
" It is by restoring public credit, not by gain- 
ing battles, that we are finally to gain our ob- 
ject." Haym Salomon brought not only all 
his wealth to the aid of his adopted country, 
but a financial insight which, for clearness and 
depth, was not surpassed by Alexander Ham- 
ilton nor equalled by Robert Morris. Amer- 
ica found in Haym Salomon a champion 
equalled by few, his fertility in resource and 
soundness of financial views made him, 
through Robert Morris, Superintendent of Fi- 
nance, the real financier of the Revolution and 
judged by Alexander Hamilton's standard of 
patriotism, surpassed by none, for Haym Salo- 
mon was practically the sole agent employed 
by Morris for negotiating bills of exchange, 
16 



The Financier of the Revolution 

by which means the credit of the Government 
was so largely maintained during this period. 
We do not wish to detract from the glory of 
Robert Morris, but we do insist that the suc- 
cess Morris obtained in his financial schemes 
was due to the skill, ability and sacrifice of 
Haym Solomon. 

On July 12, 1782, he requested Morris' 
permission to publish the fact that he was 
broker to the Ofl'ice of Finance. In reference 
to this Morris entered into his diary: "This 
broker has been useful to the public interests. 
... I have consented, as I do not see that 
any disadvantage can possibly arise to the 
public service, but the reverse." 

He was appointed broker to the French 
consul and the treasurer of the French army 
and fiscal agent of the French Minister to the 
United States, Chevalier de la Luzerne, enor- 
mous sums passing through his hands. He 
was the principal depositor of the Bank of 
North America, an institution founded 
through the instrumentality of Robert Mor- 
ris, to serve as a means of obtaining funds to 
carry on the Government, the first and only 
17 



Haym Salomon 

bank, chartered by the Revolutionary Con- 
gress. The accounts of fifteen other mer- 
chants who commenced with the opening of 
the bank occupied, in all, fifteen pages, up 
to the period of Salomon's death, while Salo- 
mon's account occupied in all fifteen pages, 
double columns, of the same ledger. Salo- 
mon's one account was as large as their entire 
account in the aggregate. The balances at 
the various times of settlement in his bank 
book show special balances of from $15,000 
to $50,000 at each period. The amount 
charged by the bank to his account as paid to 
Robert Morris was over $200,000, while 
Robert Morris' own account during the same 
period had a deposit of less than $10,000. 
A further interesting fact is that on a day 
when Robert Morris deposited $10,000 in 
the bank, he received exactly the same amount 
from Haym Salomon. 

Morris' diary, August 26, 1782, records: 
" I sent for Salomon and desired him to try 
every way he could to raise money." Two 
days later he wrote: " Salomon, the broker, 
came and I urged him to leave no stone un- 
18 



The Financier of the Revolution 

turned to find out money and the means by 
which I can obtain it." 

Not only did Salomon advance large sums 
to the Government for which he received no 
return, but the services of James Madison, 
Edmund Randolph, Generals Mifflin, St. 
Clair and others were retained in the cause 
through his bounty. In Madison's letter to 
Virginia, in 1781, he writes: " My wants are 
so urgent that it is impossible to suppress 
them. The case of my brethren is equally 
alarming." Later he declares: "The kind- 
ness of our friend in Front Street (Mr. Salo- 
mon) is a fund that will preserve me from ex- 
treme necessities, but I never resort to it with- 
out great mortification, as he obstinately re- 
jects all recompense. To necessitous delegates 
he gratuitously spares from his private stock." 

Henry Wheaton says: " Judge Wilson, so 
distinguished for his labors in the Convention 
that framed the Federal Constitution, would 
have retired from public service had he not 
been sustained by the timely aid of Haym Sal- 
omon, as delicately as it was generously ad- 
ministered," 

19 



Haym Salomon 

When Salomon was called on to advance 
the entire pay for the ensuing year to Jones, 
Randolph, and Madison, as members of the 
Revolutionary Congress, they had in writ- 
ing allotted that Madison should get fifty 
pounds less than the other two, but Salomon, 
seeing in young Madison, then only twenty- 
nine years old, those great talents for which 
be became distinguished in after years, pre- 
sented him, from his own private purse, the 
fifty pounds, thus equalizing the pay of the 
whole delegation. 

Jared Sparks in his life of Gouverneur 
Morris, a member of Congress in 1780, pub- 
lishes a letter written by Mr. Morris, In 
which he declares that " the person who did 
loan cash to a member to relieve his distress 
in that day, was in no expectation of ever 
getting repaid." 

James Madison, twice President of the 
United States, the most learned and patriotic 
member of the Revolutionary Congress, thus 
paid his tribute to Salomon's devotion and 
bounty: " When any member was In need, all 
that was necessary was to call upon Salomon." 
20 



The Financier of the Revolution 

Again and again he refers to his " Httle friend 
in Front Street," acknowledged not only his 
indebtedness to " the little Jew " on whose 
bounty he had pensioned, but again and again 
refers to his integrity and disinterestedness. 

It is true that there were merchants who 
subscribed to make up army supplies in 1780, 
ostensibly without security, but Madison's 
journal shows that they had a contingent se- 
curity of the best Sterling Exchange to the 
amount of 150,000 pounds in excess of their 
subscription. 

Not only did Salomon aid his home gov- 
ernment, but he was the confidential friend 
and adviser of agents, consuls, and representa- 
tives of foreign powers in sympathy with the 
Revolutionary movement. He had confiden- 
tial relations with all the foreign representa- 
tives at one time or another. He was the con- 
fidential friend of that ardent adherent to 
the American cause. Count de la Luzerne, 
Ambassador for France. With this appoint- 
ment, Salomon was made banker for that 
Government. He was appointed by Mon- 
sieur Roquebrune, treasurer of the forces of 
21 



Haym Salomon 

France in America and made paymaster-gen- 
eral, which office he filled free of charge. A 
letter from Count Vergennes, Minister of 
Spain, to De la Luzerne, states that in two 
years 150,000 livres (equal to present-day 
francs) were distributed through Salomon. 

Salomon for two years, up to the time of 
his death, out of his own private purse main- 
tained Don Francisco Rendon, Ambassador 
from Spain. Writing to the Spanish Governor 
of Cuba, Rendon says: "Mr. Salomon has 
obtained money for his Most Catholic Maj- 
esty and I am indebted to his friendship in 
this particular for the support of my charac- 
ter, as his Most Catholic Majesty's agent 
here, with any degree of credit and reputa- 
tion, and without it I would not have been 
able to give that protection and assistance to 
His Majesty's subjects which His Majesty 
enjoins and my duty requires." More than 
$10,000 was thus advanced which was never 
repaid. 

The secret support of Charles III of Spain 
is said to have been due to Salomon's efforts. 

Although Salomon endorsed a great por- 
22 



The Financier of the Revolution 

tlon of the bills of exchange for the amount 
of loans and subsidies our Government ob- 
tained in Europe, of which he negotiated 
the entire sums and the execution of which 
duty required a great deal of his valuable 
time, from 1781 to 1783, still there was 
only charged a fractional percentage to the 
United States. He never caused the loss to 
the Government one cent of the many mil- 
lions of his negotiations, either by his own 
management or from the credit he gave to 
others on the sale he made of those immense 
sums of foreign drafts on account of the 
United States. 

After the peace of 1783, when foreign 
commerce could again float unmolested, Salo- 
mon engaged as a trading merchant to Eu- 
ropean ports. He had several ships upon the 
sea, but through the failure of merchants in 
whom he had confidence, he suffered great 
losses. 

Always eager to help his fellowmen, he 

gave every assistance possible to those who 

commenced trading after the war. To the 

president of the National Bank, whose part- 

23 



Haym Salomon 

ner was the Superintendent of Finance, he 
gave two loans of $40,000 and $24,000, and 
without interest. The firm was known as 
Willing, Morris & Swanick. It is doubtful 
If he ever got any of his money back. 

So successful had Salomon become that he 
opened up an establishment In New York. In 
the Pennsylvania and Weekly Advertiser, 
January i, 1785, appeared the following an- 
nouncement : 

" Haym Salomon, broker to the Office of 
Finance, having provided a license of ex- 
ercising the employment of an auctioneer in 
the City of New York, has now opened for 
the reception of every species of merchandise, 
his house. No. 22 Wall Street, and every 
branch of business, which in the smallest de- 
gree appertains to the profession — factor, 
auctioneer and broker, will be transacted in it, 
with that fidelity, dispatch and punctuality 
which has hitherto characterized his dealings. 
The house, in point of convenience and situa- 
tion, is exceedingly well calculated for the 
different kinds of business above mentioned, 
and he thinks it is almost unnecessary to assure 
those who favor him with their orders that 
the strictest attention shall be paid to them 
and the utmost care and solicitation employed 
24 



The Financier of the Revolution 

to promote their Interests. The nature of his 
business enables him to make remittances to 
any part of the world with peculiar facility, 
and this he hopes will operate considerably 
in his favor with those who live at a 
distance. 

" A desire of being more extensively use- 
ful and of giving universal satisfaction to the 
public are among his principal motives for 
opening the house and shall be the great lead- 
ing principles of his transactions. By being 
broker to the Office of Finance and honored 
with its confidence, all those sums have passed 
through his hands, which the generosity of 
the French Monarch, and the affection of 
the merchants of the United Provinces, 
prompted them to furnish us with, to enable 
us to support the expenses of the war and 
which have so much contributed to Its suc- 
cess and happy termination. This Is a cir- 
cumstance which has established his credit and 
reputation, and procured him the confidence 
of the public, a confidence which It shall be 
his study and ambition to merit and increase, 
by sacredly performing all his engagements. 
The business will be conducted upon the most 
liberal and extensive plan, under the firm 
name of Haym Salomon and Jacob Morde- 
cal." 

Salomon died suddenly in Philadelphia, 
January 6, 1785, at 45 years of age. He left 
25 



Haym Salomon 

a widow and four small children, to use the 
language of the Congressional report : " to 
hazard and neglect." Here is his obituary 
notice taken from the Pennsylvania Journal 
and JFeekly Advertiser, of January 8, 1785 : 
" On Thursday, died Haym Salomon, a 
broker." That is all, not a word about his 
princely fortune to the new Republic, nothing 
about his self-denying gifts whereby the great 
geniuses of Revolutionary days could give the 
service that constructed the greatest Nation 
on the globe, nothing about his leadership in 
the first charitable organization among the 
Jews of Philadelphia, a society for the relief 
of destitute strangers, nothing about his loy- 
alty to the ancient faith, his eminent charac- 
ter as a business man and high standing as a 
citizen. But — he was a Jew ! That tells the 
story. 

The following is a copy of an authentic cer- 
tificate from the Register's office in Philadel- 
phia, showing the amount of public securities 
and Revolutionary papers left by Haym Salo- 
mon and from which personal estate not a 
cent has been received by any of his heirs: 
26 



The Financier of the Revolution 

58 Loan office certificates $110,233.65 

19 Treasury certificates 18,259.50 

2 Virginia State certificates. . . 8,166.48 

70 Commissioners' certificates . . 17,870.37 

Continental liquidate 199,214.45 

$353»744-45 

Besides he left evidences of advances to 
Robert Morris In the sum of $211,000, a 
claim of $92,000 on the United States for ad- 
ditional loans, an unpaid balance of $10,000 
to the Spanish Ambassador, and Innumerable 
loans to Madison, St. Clair, Steuben, Wilson, 
and many others. 

The condition of the Government's finances 
as well as those of individuals during and im- 
mediately after the Revolutionary War was 
almost as chaotic, and his affairs were neces- 
sarily much Involved and his family were al- 
most without resources. The widow's un- 
famlllarlty with business, together with the 
monetary situation prevailing at the time, pre- 
vented her ever securing a dollar of the $658,- 
007.13 advanced, as shown from document- 
ary evidence afterwards submitted to Con- 
27 



Haym Salomon 

gress — an enormous sum at that period for a 
private individual, when all commerce and 
business were prostrated. Madison, in 1827, 
urged that the memorialists might be indemni- 
fied and reports in their favor have been fre- 
quently made, but not a dollar has been repaid 
— not a medal granted in lieu of the claim — 
a fact which affords support to the oft-re- 
peated observation of the ingratitude of re- 
publics.* 

*The descendants of Salomon have been de- 
prived of their valued inheritance by the reason 
of their vouchers being lost while in the custody 
of the Government, and in consequence of the 
destruction by the British of many of the public 
archives of that period, during the invasion of 
Washington in 18 14. 

During the first session of the Twenty-ninth 
Congress the Senate Committee of Claims unani- 
mously agreed upon a report similar to that 
adopted by the House Committee of the Thir- 
tieth Congress, but too late for presentation. 

At the second session of the Fifty-second Con- 
gress (February 24, 1893), a bill presented to 
the House ordered that a gold medal be struck 
off' in recognition of services rendered by Haym 
28 



The Financier of the Revolution 

Ezeklel, the elder son of Haym Salomon, 
was for some time purser in the United States 
Navy, and died in 1822 while cashier of New 
Orleans branch of the United States Bank. 

Haym M., the younger son, established 
himself in the mercantile business in New 
York City, where he married Ella, the 
daughter of Jacob Hart, a German Jew who 
came to America in 1775, became a promi- 
nent merchant of Baltimore and is mentioned 
in the secret journals of Continental Congress 
as having headed a subscription of the Balti- 
more merchants for the relief of a detachment 
of the American Army, under command of 
Lafayette, then passing through that city. 

In 1844, Haym M. Salomon abandoned 
business, gathered the evidence proving his 
father's claim against the Government and de- 
voted all his energies to recovering the fortune 
of which his family had so long been deprived. 

Salomon, in consideration of which the Salomon 
heirs waived their claims upon the United States 
for indemnity. The measure was reported favor- 
ably by the House Committee on the Library, 
but too late for consideration. 
29 



Haym Salomon 

He enjoyed the confidence of Webster, Clay, 
Calhoun and other great Americans of his 
time, and though his claims were frequently 
reported favorably by committees of both 
Houses of Congress, a united action taking 
the form of legislation was never secured by 
him. 

Colonel David Salomon, grandson of 
Haym, was a man of mark, and after having 
made a great name as a merchant in Phila- 
delphia, the Pennsylvania Railroad created 
for him the office of financial agent in New 
York. His son, William, great-grandson of 
Haym Salomon, one of the famous bankers 
of New York, as the direct descendant, makes 
no monetary claim upon the Government. 

For the justice of the Haym Salomon claim 
we have the highest possible authority. In 
the report filed in the Senate during the twen- 
ty-ninth Congress it was said : 

" From the evidence in the possession of 
the committee, the patriotic devotion of Haym 
Salomon to the cause of the American Inde- 
pendence cannot in their judgment be ques- 
tioned. The proof of his eminent character 
and standing as a citizen and merchant is very 
30 



The Financier of the Revolution 

clear and abundant." Further In the report, 
the committee found Mr. Salomon to have 
been " the negotiator of all the war subsidies 
obtained from France and Holland, which he 
Indorsed and sold In bills to the merchants In 
America, at the credit of two or three months 
on his own personal security." 

In the same report It was also stated: 

" The committee from the evidence before 
them are Induced to consider Haym Salomon 
as one of the truest and most efficient friends 
of the country In a very critical period of Its 
history and when Its pecuniary resources were 
few and Its difficulties many and pressing. 
He seems to have trusted implicitly to the 
National honor; and the committee are of the 
opinion that, as In the case of Lafayette and 
others, the Nation ought to be liberal In their 
Indemnity to a son of any early benefactor In 
the day of Its prosperity. 

" France, in the most pressing times during 
the Revolutionary struggle, redeemed her 
paper obligations by means of the public do- 
main; and generation after generation of Rev- 
olutionary claimants in this country have been 
rewarded by a grateful people; nor ought the 
memorialist to bear exception. His claim, in 
the opinion of the committee, to the amount 
which the United States owed to his father 
when he suddenly died, and which has been 
clearly established by documents referred to 

31 



Haym Salomon 

in this report, is a just one, and the recom- 
pense he seeks ought not to be longer delayed. 
" Abundant proof is presented that Haym 
Salomon rendered very essential aid to the 
cause of the Revolution, and that he did so, 
judging by so many of his acts, disinterestedly 
and from a sincere and ardent love for human 
freedom." 

In the report submitted by the Committee 
on Revolutionary Claims in the Senate, under 
date July 2, 1865, the justice of the claim was 
again affirmed, and a further attestation of the 
remarkable public spirit of Haym Salomon 
was made, in these words, viz. : 

" It is also proven by the vouchers before 
your committee that Haym Salomon provided 
the means to support the ambassador of the 
King of Spain, Don Francisco Rendon, who 
was in secret alliance with the Revolutionary 
Government, and whose supplies were cut off 
by the British cruisers. This fact was ac- 
knowledged in an official letter from that 
minister to the Governor-General of Cuba, 
and the original orders, uncancelled, to the 
amount of ten thousand Spanish dollars, are 
before your committee, showing that the 
amount was never paid. But the memorialist 
does not nor never has asked this Government 
to pay that sum. 

32 



The Financier of the Revolution 

" All the former reports from the commit- 
tees of both houses show that Haym Salomon 
supported from his private means many of the 
principal men of the Revolution, who other- 
wise, as stated by themselves, could not have 
attended to their public duties, among whom 
are mentioned Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Steu- 
ben, Mifflin, St. Clair, Blond, Jones, Monroe, 
Wilson and others." 

The unsecured loans of Haym Salomon in 
the Nation's supreme crisis, like Washing- 
ton's advance of $64,000, at an earlier period, 
out of his own purse, with no other security 
but his own faith in the cause, to pay his daily 
expenses, while he was leading their armies, 
inspired the confidence that made men rally 
'round the flag. Even so Jeremiah purchased 
a field in Anathoth, in the days when Judah 
was captive under Babylon, paying down 
seventeen shekels of silver as a token of his 
faith that the land would some day be de- 
livered from the enemy and restored to peace- 
ful habitation. Washington's pledge of prop- 
erty to liberty was repaid by a grateful people 
— but for his services, not a dollar. 

The men who stood with Washington were 

33 



Haym Salomon 

recklessly rash in the pursuit of their Ideals. 
John Dickinson said: " It is not our duty to 
leave wealth to our children, but it is our duty 
to leave liberty to them. We have counted 
the cost of this contest and find nothing so 
dreadful as voluntary slavery." 

Samuel Adams, hungry and poorly clad, 
rejected with scorn the offer of a profitable 
ofl^ce, wealth, a title even, to turn him from 
his allegiance to America. 

John Adams wrote to his wife: "I have 
accepted a seat in the House of Representa- 
tives and thereby have consented to my own 
ruin, to your ruin and to the ruin of our chil- 
dren." 

She replied: " I am willing, in this cause, 
to run all the risks with you and be ruined 
with you if you are ruined." 

Benjamin Franklin, past seventy, then the 
most celebrated man in all America, accepted 
the dangerous mission to France, saying: " I 
am old and good for nothing, but as the 
storekeepers say of the remnants of cloth, ' I 
am but a fag end and you may have me for 
what you please.' " 

34 



The Financier of the Revolution 

America has honored these patriotic men 
and justly so, by high places in her history, 
and as we sing their praises we are inspired 
with the invincible determination to give our 
country to our children as we got It from our 
fathers, a free and Independent Nation, but 
this man, Haym Salomon, who, renouncing 
the maxim of worldly wisdom which says, 
** Get all you can and keep all you get," gave 
all he had to the cause of America, gave it 
in a crucial moment, when money alone saved 
the day, and when, had he kept it, he could 
have made millions, and it is only just to 
ask that future writers of American history 
acknowledge " the little Jew," the real finan- 
cier of the American Revolution. Shall not 
the people of this peerless, unrivalled, unap- 
proached and unapproachable Republic, now 
In the days of their prosperity, erect to this 
early benefactor a monument at Washington, 
a memorial to this ardent lover of human free- 
dom, who did In his little office In Front Street, 
Philadelphia, for the Nation's credit, what 
Washington did on the field of battle for the 
people's freedom? 

35 



Bibliography 



A. U. S. Government Reports on Haym 
Salomon Claim 

Rep. F. A. Talmadge, April 26, 1848, 
House Reports, No. 504, 30th Congress, ist 
sess., Vol. III. 

Report of Senator J. D. Bright, July 28, 
1848. Senate Reports No. 219, 30th Con- 
gress, ist sess. 

Report of Senator I. P. Walker, August 9, 
1850. Senate Reports, No. 177, 31st Con- 
gress, ist sess., 'Vol. I. 

Report of Senator Charles Durkee, March 
9, i860. Senate Reports, No. 127, 36th 
Congress, ist sess.. Vol. I. 

Report of Senator M. S. Wilkinson, July 
2, 1862. Senate Reports, No. 65, 37th Con- 
gress, 2d sess. 

Senate Reports, June 24, 1864, No. 93, 
37th Congress, 2d sess. 
36 



The Financier of the Revolution 

Senate Report to 31st Congress. 

Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 
41, Vol. IX, p. 58. 

The House Report (No. 2,556 to accom- 
pany H. R. 7,896) summarizes the efforts 
made in previous Congresses and reprints 
in full the Senate Report to the 37th 
Congress. 

B. Books and Articles 

Adams, Herbert B., Haym Salomon : 

Publication, American Jewish Historical 
Society, No. 2, pp. 15-19. 

Daly, Judge Charles Patrick : 

Settlement of the Jews in North America. 
Edited by Max J. Kohler, New York, 1893; 
pp. 58-60. 

Hollander, Jacob H. : 

Some further references relating to Haym 
Salomon. Publications of the American Jew- 
ish Historical Society, Vol. Ill (1895) 5 PP- 

7-1. 

Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. X (1905) ; pp. 

653-655. 

Magnus, Lady Kate : 

37 



Haym Salomon 

Outlines of Jewish History, Philadelphia, 
1890; p. 350. 

Madison, James: 

Writings (Hunt), 228-242. 

Markens, Isaac: 

The Hebrews in America, New York, 
1888; pp. 66-70. 

Morris, Robert: 

Diary (in Mss.), in Library of Congress, 
Washington, 

Salomon, Haym M. : 

Two letters relating to Haym Salomon. 
Publications of the American Jewish Histor- 
ical Society, No. 16 (1907), pp. 189-192. 



38 



II 

Other Jewish Patriots of 
the Revolution 

HAYM SALOMON was not the only 
Jew who sacrificed his fortune for 
Independence, for we find that 
among the signers of the bills of credit for 
the Continental Congress, in 1776, were Ben- 
jamin Levy, of Philadelphia, and Benjamin 
Jacobs, of New York. Samuel Lyon, of New 
York, was among the signers of similar bills 
In 1779. Isaac Moses, of Philadelphia, con- 
tributed $15,000 to the Colonial Treasury, 
and Herman Levy, another Philadelphlan, re- 
peatedly advanced considerable sums for the 
support of the army in the field. Manuel 
Mordecai Noah, of South Carolina, not only 
served in the army, as an officer on Washing- 
ton's staff, and likewise with General Marion, 
39 



Haym Salomon 

but gave $100,000 to further the cause in 
which he was enhsted. 

Among the patriots of the South none 
worked more unselfishly than Mordecai Shef- 
tall, " Chairman of the Rebel Parochial Com- 
mittee," organized to regulate the internal af- 
fairs of Savannah and composed of patriots, 
opposed to the royal government, and who, 
after active hostilities were begun in the 
South, was appointed Commissary-General to 
the troops of Georgia in July, 1777, and soon 
thereafter was also appointed Commissary to 
the Continental troops; and when the British 
attacked Savannah in December, 1778, Shef- 
tall's name appears not only foremost among 
the patriot-defenders of that city and as one 
who advanced considerable money to the 
cause, but as one who was placed on board 
the prison ship because of his refusal to flock 
to the royal standard. In 1780, when the 
British authorities passed the disqualifying 
act, we find the name of Mordecai Sheftall 
near the head of the list with the most promi- 
nent patriot names of Georgia. 

Among the 600 Jews of Charleston, S. C, 
40 



The Financier of the Revolution 

then the largest Jewish city in America, there 
was not one Tory. 

The Jews in New York were not on a foot- 
ing of political equality with Christians until 
the adoption of the first constitution of the 
State of New York, in 1777, New York hav- 
ing been the first State actually granting full 
religious liberty to the Jews, Even in Mary- 
land, to which Bancroft has referred as 
among the first colonies which " adopted re- 
ligious freedom as the basis of the State," re- 
ligious freedom was limited to those who be- 
lieved in Jesus Christ, and accompanied by a 
proviso, which declared that any person who 
denied the Trinity should be punished with 
death. Even after the Revolution, though 
under the Constitution of the United States 
a Jew was eligible to any office, no one could 
hold any office under the government of 
Maryland without signing a declaration that 
he believed In the Christian religion. These 
intolerant provisions were not repealed in 
Maryland until February 26, 1825. 

Though subjected to civil disabilities and 
unreasonable demands in most of the States, 
41 



Haym Salomon 

where they had settled prior to the Revolu- • 
tion, yet the Colonial cause found among the 
Jews its staunchest friends. Freely they gave 
their lives for Independence and aided with 
their money, to equip and maintain the armies 
of the Revolution. 

The Non-Importation Resolution In 1765, 
the first organized movement In the agitation 
for separation from the mother country — a 
document still preserved in Carpenter's Hall, 
Philadelphia — contains the following Jewish 
names : Benjamin Levy, Samson Levy, Joseph 
Jacobs, Hayman Levy, Jr., David Franks, 
Mathias Bush, Michael Gratz, Bernard Gratz 
and Moses Mordecal. 

The decision reached in New York, In 
1770, to make more stringent the Non-Im- 
portation Agreement, which Colonists had 
adopted to bring England to terms on the tax- 
ation question, had among Its signers, Samuel 
Judah, Hayman Levy, Jacob Moses, Jacob 
Meyers, Jonas Phillips and Isaac Seixas. 

Cyrus Adler recently called attention to the 
following incident, based on the unpublished 
letter of Jared Sparks: " At the outbreak of 
42 



The Financier of the Revolution 

the Revolutionary War, a Mr. Gomez, of 
New York, proposed to a member of the Con- 
tinental Congress that he form a company of 
soldiers for service. The member of Con- 
gress remonstrated with Mr. Gomez on the 
score of age, he being then sixty-eight, to 
which Mr. Gomez replied that he ' could stop 
a bullet as well as a younger man.' " 

Colonel Isaac Franks became aide-de-camp 
to Washington, holding the rank of Colonel 
on his staff and served with distinction 
throughout the war. 

Major Benjamin Nones, a native of Bor- 
deaux, France, who came to America in 1777, 
served on the staffs of both Lafayette and 
Washington. He entered service under Pu- 
laski, as a private, and as he writes: " fought 
in almost every action which took place in 
Carolina, and in the disastrous affair of Sa- 
vannah shared the hardships of that sangui- 
nary day." He became Major of a legion of 
four hundred men, attached to Baron de 
Kalb's command and composed in part of He- 
brews. 

Colonel David S. Franks, of Montreal, 

43 



Haym Salomon 

openly sympathized with and aided the Amer- 
icans under Generals Montgomery and Ar- 
nold during their invasion of Canada, and 
was forced to flee from Canada in 1776, when 
the American forces abandoned the country. 
The name of David S. Franks appeared on 
Governor Carleton's list of twenty-nine per- 
sons, sent to the British Ministry early in 
I777> "being the principal persons who set- 
tled in the province who very zealously served 
the rebels in the winter of 1 775-1 776, and 
fled upon their leaving it." Franks, who left 
Canada with the intention of joining the 
American Army, although his course in this 
matter resulted in heavy pecuniary losses in 
his business affairs and also alienated him 
from his father, became aide-de-camp to Ar- 
nold, intrepid, zealous, and able soldier that 
he was, until jealousy, extravagance and spite 
led him to take up the traitor's role. Franks 
gave testimony to Mrs. Arnold's innocence 
of all complicity in her husband's treason. 
Suspicions were aroused against Franks on 
account of Arnold's treason, but after a 
searching inquiry into his conduct, he was not 
44 



The Financier of the Revolution 

only acquitted, but was sent to Europe with 
important dispatches to Jay and Franklin, 
with instructions to await their orders. In 
a letter from Robert Morris to Franklin, 
dated Philadelphia, July 13, 178 1, we read: 
" The bearer of the letter, Major Franks, 
formerly aide-de-camp to General Arnold, 
and honorably acquitted of all connection with 
him, after a full and Impartial inquiry, will 
be able to give you our public news more par- 
ticularly than I could relate them." 

Philip Moses Russell, in the spring of 
1775, enlisted as a surgeon's mate under com- 
mand of General Lee. After the British oc- 
cupation of Philadelphia in September, 1777, 
he became surgeon's mate to Surgeon Nor- 
man of the Second Virginia Regiment. Rus- 
sell went into the winter quarters with the 
army at Valley Forge, 1 777-1 778. 

Sickness forced him to resign in August, 
1780. He received a letter of commendation 
from General Washington " for his assidu- 
ous and faithful attentions to the sick and 
wounded." 

Solomon Bush, Emanuel de la Motta, Ben- 
45 



Haym Salomon 

jamin Ezekiel, Jason Sampson, Ascher Levy, 
Nathaniel Levy, David Hays and his son 
Jacob, Reuben Etting, Jacob L Cohen, Major 
Lewis Bush, Aaron Benjamin, Moses Bloom- 
field, Isaac Israel and Benjamin Moses are 
the names of a few of the other Jews who 
distinguished themselves upon the battlefields 
of the Revolution. 

A pretty good record is it not, when we 
remember that there were only 3,000 Jews 
— men, women and children, in the Colonies 
at the time of the Revolution? 

The commemoration of the first battlefield 
of the Revolutionary War was made possible 
through a Jew. Upon learning that Amos 
Lawrence, of Boston, had pledged himself to 
give $10,000 to complete the Bunker Hill 
monument, if any other person could be found 
to give a like amount, Judah Touro, of New 
Orleans, who came to the aid of Andrew Jack- 
son during the memorable defense of that 
city, immediately sent a check for the amount. 
In the History of Bunker Hill Monument, 
which was published by George Washington 
Warren, appears the following tribute to Ju- 
46 



The Financier of the Revolution 

dah Touro : " He was one of that smallest of 
all classes into which mankind can be divided 
— of men who accumulate wealth without 
ever doing a wrong, taking an advantage, or 
making an enemy; who become rich without 
being avaricious; who deny themselves the 
comforts of life that they may acquire the 
means of promoting the comfort and elevat- 
ing the condition of their fellowmen." At a 
dinner given at Faneuil Hall on June 17, 
1843, to celebrate the completion of the mon- 
ument, the two great benefactors of the asso- 
ciation were remembered by the following 
toast : 

" Amos and Judah, venerated names, 
Patriarch and Prophet press their equal 

claims; 
Like generous coursers running neck and 

neck. 
Each aids the work by giving it a check. 
Christian and Jew, they carry out one plan, 
For, though of different faiths, each is in 

heart a man." 



47 



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